Ten Questions We Need Answered By Game Of Thrones

The penultimate season of Game Of Thrones has only just come to an end, and if rumours are to be believed, we have to wait until 2019 to find out how all the events set up in season seven will play out. Here’s a few questions that need answers in season eight.

Will Cersei really have a baby?

To say this news was a bolt out the blue would be a bit of an understatement. This is mostly because of the prophecy that Cersei hears from a witch as a child. Cersei asks if she’ll have any children (kind of a wasted wish in a world where women are used as baby machines from the minute they reach puberty, but there you go). She’s told that the king will have twenty kids, but she will have three. She tells her that “gold will be their crowns, and gold their shrouds”, proving that not even the characters themselves can avoid Thrones spoilers. Cut to the present, Cersei had three kids, all royal and all dead. Cersei’s current pregnancy goes against a prophecy that has turned out to be pretty spot on, which is why most people believe she’s either lying to manipulate Jaime – classic Cersei – or she’ll miscarry, which could lead to her death. To add to this theory, the witch also tells her she’ll be killed by the ‘valonqar’, or ‘little brother’. If this baby is a boy, it would be the little brother of her three previous children, and voila, the last part of the prophecy is completed when Cersei is killed by her children’s little brother.

When will Jon and Dany find out they are related?

Exactly how Bran Stark’s powers work is still a little bit of a mystery in the GoT universe. He knew Jon’s real parents were Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark, but didn’t know they were married until Sam mentioned it. Bran takes a quick trip back in time to confirm it and discovers Jon’s real name is actually Aegon Targaryen, which for some reason he didn’t hear the first time he was there. Lyanna was supposed to be a great beauty but she clearly wasn’t gifted in the brains department, if she knew her son would be killed if anyone knew his true identity, and then goes and names him ‘Dragony McDragonface’ anyway. The question is whether Bran will bother to tell Jon that the girl he’s involved with is a blood relative. He says in the season seven finale that Jon “needs to know”, but this means that Jon is the rightful heir to the Iron Throne over Daenerys. The two are all googly-eyed over each other now, but it’s not hard to believe Daenerys would kill anyone who threatened her claim to Westeros, even if they were family. If Bran’s smart, he’ll hold off on the dramatic reveal until they are done teaming up to defeat the white walkers.

What was the point of revealing Melisandre’s true form?

Way back in season six, when Jon Snow was temporarily dead, we learned a lot about Melisandre. She was doubting her abilities as a Red Priestess, she kind of regrets setting fire to a child in front of her parents, and when she takes her necklace off she ages about five thousand years. The significance of this scene is never really revealed, and maybe it’s just adding a bit of backstory to the mysterious Red Woman, but since when does GoT ever add in things just for the sake of it? If she’s been around for centuries, maybe she’ll be revealed to have played a part in other parts of Westerosi history. She mentions to Varys that she’s travelling to Volantis before journeying back to Westeros to die, so she must have some connections there to help fight the Night King that she’ll use before kicking the bucket.

What’s the deal with Bran?

As previously mentioned, Bran’s role as the Three Eyed Raven is a bit of headscratcher. We know he can see the past, but not all of it. We know he can see the present, but doesn’t seem to use this huge tactical advantage to tell Sansa that Jon has teamed up with Daenerys seeing as she learns this from a regular old two-eyed raven. The name ‘Three Eyed Raven’ suggests Bran can also see in to the future, but we haven’t seen him use this power yet, so does he have to train himself to do it? Can he already use it but doesn’t tell anyone because he can’t intervene without changing the course of history? Will he ever show a single ounce of emotion? Only time will tell.

How does this whole Ice Dragon thing work?

Undead Viserion breathes blue fire that can bring down a wall that’s been protected by magic for thousands of years, which the Night King must have been pretty chuffed about. You might wonder how he planned to get through the wall before Daenerys hatched her dragons, but hey, we’ll put that to one side for now. Any fan of Game of Thrones will know that ‘fire cannot kill a dragon’ but fire can kill a wight, so which side wins out there? Will Undead Viserion be killed by one of his siblings, or by a dragon glass arrow fired from Jaime’s giant crossbow?

Will there be more dragons?

Don’t you think it’s strange that no one has ever tried to find more dragons? Especially after a few well-placed javelins have proved dragons aren’t as invincible as people think, it would have made sense to start sourcing a few back ups. Daenerys was given hers as a wedding present and is told they were from ‘the Shadow Lands beyond Asshai’, so you would have thought she’d have sent someone to find a few more eggs to build her army up. Of course, it would also help things if the dragons she already has decide to get it on and mate. Dragon breeding hasn’t really been mentioned in the show, but Drogon and Rhaegal seem fully mature at this point, so maybe they’ll settle down and start a family in season eight.

Will Quaithe ever return?

You know, the woman in the mask that jumps out on Jorah in season two, and tells him that the warlocks of Qarth are up to no good? In the books, she delivers an infamous prophecy about how Daenerys should go to Asshai to find ‘truth’ and it’s considered a pretty big plot point but the show axed this whole storyline. So why was Quaithe introduced at all? This last season was entirely focused on Westeros, so it would be nice if season eight showed us the fallout in the rest of the world. Like Meereen for example…

What’s going on in Meereen, anyway?

Daenerys left Meereen in the hands of Daario Naharis, who she also dumped, so she was free to marry someone with a bit more political sway. While she was Queen in Meereen we found out that some of her subjects loved her, and some saw her as a foreign invader that plonked herself on the throne, ignored all their history and culture, and left a lot of former slaves in worse conditions than they had been when she arrived. Meereen, Yunkai and Astapor have regularly broken down with and without their Queen there, so how have they gotten on since Dany left Essos?

How does the Daenerys’ ability to have children come in to play?

Fans seem to think the Mother of Dragons will be adding to her brood in the final season, with a human baby instead of the scaly variety, thanks to her new relationship with Jon Snow and a few ominous comments about her infertility. They also seem to think this new slightly inbred baby could be the Prince Who Was Promised, born to defeat the Night King. There’s only one tiny problem – the white walkers broke through the wall in the last episode, and while they might walk pretty slowly, will it really take them eighteen years to reach the citizens of Westeros? Time is a pretty liberal concept in the GoT universe but there’s no room left in the timeline for a pregnancy, birth, training montage and epic battle.

Is the original Aegon still alive?

This one is not a widely discussed theory, but it should be. Daenerys has a vision in the House Of The Undying that tells her ‘the dragon has three heads’. This could refer to the riders of Dany’s three dragons, which would be Dany, Jon, and the Night King. However, it could be a little more metaphorical, and relate to the last three Targaryens alive. This would account for Dany and Jon, but who’s behind door number three? In the books, there is a character called Young Griff who claims to be Rhaegar’s first son Aegon, who was murdered by the Mountain. There’s a theory that Varys traded the real Aegon with another baby so he could smuggle him out of Westeros, train him to be a king that doesn’t want to set fire to his subjects, and make sure the Targaryen dynasty had a chance to live on. It’s far-fetched, but Game of Thrones doesn’t like playing safe, they’d never opt for an ending that everyone could see coming. Imagine if after building up the saviour of Westeros for eight seasons, it turned out to be a complete stranger?